Introduction

At about 4pm on Monday 10th July, 2006, I was birding around a large construction site called Alamander Homes, which is just off the Butterworth - Kulim Expressway, about 10km beyond the turning to Kulim Hi-Tech park coming from Butterworth.

Alamander Homes - showing Small Buttonquail habitat in foreground

My attention had been drawn to a large flock of swifts and Oriental Pratincoles (Glareola maldivarum) feeding on emergent flying ants. To reach the birds, I parked my car beside some cleared land and walked over it to where I could view the birds at close range.
On returning to the car, I flushed a Paddyfield Pipit (Anthus rufulus). I then saw another bird on the ground near where I had flushed the pipit. It was similar in size to the pipit and at first I assumed it was another Paddyfield Pipit.
However, as I got my camera onto the bird I realized that I was looking at a buttonquail (Turnix sp) or quail (Coturnix sp), but a tiny one!

The bird sat still momentarily and then began to run away from me. It was so small - noticeably smaller than adult Barred Buttonquail (Turnix suscitator) - that I wondered if it might be a very juvenile Barred Buttonquail.
However, I also noticed that it had pale legs and a rather upright stance, quite different from Barred Buttonquail.

I followed the bird, trying to get closer pictures of it. It eventually flew in an arc to my right. I watched it land and then run into a small gulley, but then lost sight of it.
Happy that I had a couple of decent pictures of the bird, I left it and returned to my car.

By this time I was reasonably certain that the bird was not a Barred Buttonquail, and wondered whether it might be a female Blue-breasted Quail (Coturnix chinensis), the only other quail I could think of as occurring in Malaysia. However, on reaching home and checking A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia (Craig Robson) and the Oriental Bird Image database , I realized that the bird was in fact a Small Buttonquail, which is not noted by Robson to occur south of Central Thailand, where it is a 'scarce to local resident.'

Elsewhere in Asia, the species occurs from Pakistan to the Philippines, and from Southern China, discontinuously, to Java and Bali. It is regarded as nomadic or semi-migratory (Steve Madge & Phil McGowan in "Pheasants,Partridges & Grouse - Including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse & Allies". Helm. London. 2002.) and it has been recorded as a vagrant e.g. in Iran & Oman.

Having established the bird's identity, I returned to the site on Wednesday 12th July to try to determine if the bird was a lone individual or if the site held a population of the species.
As best I could, I tried to cover the whole area (roughly 2-3 km²). I managed to see 4 separate Small Buttonquails. Three of them flew into cover on being flushed, but the fourth preferred to run over quite open ground, enabling me to get good and prolonged views.

Small Buttonquail Click on picture for a larger image

The birds preferred habitat seemed to be the dry, open red earth area, with sparse tussocks of low vegetation. The area is characterized by small gulleys, dips and hollows, caused by weathering, and often the buttonquails seemed to be located in an area that was slightly sheltered by the contours of the land.

Distinguishing Features

Size is notoriously unreliable as a field characteristic as it is so subjective. Having said that, Small Buttonquails are tiny. They tend to stand more upright than Barred Buttonquails.

The 'clinching' identification feature is the pale flesh-coloured legs coupled with a grey bill. Yellow-legged Buttonquail (Turnix tanki), which might occur as a passage migrant, has bright yellow legs but also at least a partly yellow bill.

The pale-edged upperpart feathers, which appear to form a series of 'V's on the birds back, are also distinctive.

The commonest confusion species is Barred Buttonquail. Barred has grey legs (though these can look pale), and strongly barred wing feathers and breast. The back is rather plain. Barred Buttonquail is a slightly larger species, and tends to walk with a more horizontal stance.

Barred Buttonquail

Female Blue-breasted Quail has barred flanks, a dark bill, and is similar in size to Barred Buttonquail.

Discussion

Subsequent visits by other birders to the site have confirmed the presence of small numbers of Small Buttonquail. Blue-breasted Quail has also been recorded from the site, but not, so far, Barred Buttonquail. There has been one intriguing report of a buttonquail seen with chicks. An adjoining area of similar habitat was briefly surveyed on 30th July, but did not reveal any buttonquails.

At this early stage, it is difficult to assess how widespread or localized Small Buttonquail is in the area. There is certainly an abundance of cleared land with a variety of vegetational cover in the immediate vicinity. With the habitat being so transitional in nature - it either gets built on or overgrown with shrubs and other vegetation - it is possible that Small Buttonquails are itinerant opportunists that move in when the habitat becomes suitable and move on as it disappears.

At least, now we know that Small Buttonquail occurs in Malaysia, we should check out carefully any buttonquail we see, particularly if it is on open ground.

David Bakewell
July 2006